How “America’s hottest prisoner” got on Swiss billboards

Jeremy Meeks rose to fame overnight when his mugshot made him “America’s Hottest Convict”. Today, the 39-year-old’s face hangs on the SBB trains and advertises Gisada’s new perfume. But what has the ex-detainee actually been up to in recent years? It doesn’t seem to be going bad. Here’s an overview.

The story of Jeremy Meeks couldn’t be more absurd. The American belonged to the street gang “Crips” until 2014 and was arrested during a raid. California police then posted Meeks’ mugshot, along with those of the others arrested, to Facebook. His mug shot immediately went viral and the photo was liked more than 15,000 times within 24 hours (that was a lot in the days of Facebook). Shortly thereafter, the criminal was proclaimed “America’s hottest prisoner” by the internet. Twitter fans even created the hashtag #feloncrushfriday (roughly, “Felon Crush Friday”).

His teardrop-shaped tattoo was particularly noticeable in the mug shot that made Meeks famous. He still wears it to this day and under almost every photo it always causes criticism on Instagram. The usual meaning of a tear under the eye is that the wearer has committed a murder.

Despite his sudden notoriety, Meeks was sentenced to 27 months in prison in 2014 for gun possession and theft. When he was released from prison in 2016, the modeling agencies literally fought over the prisoner.

However, in 2015, White Cross management confirmed that they had signed Meeks. The first model photos of the convict were published in June 2016 after his release. To this day, Meeks is still under contract with the same management and seems to be having success there as well. Since 2019, he is the perfume ambassador of Gisada Switzerland, whose advertising posters can now be seen everywhere.

To this day, Meeks can hardly believe his happiness after his arrest. In late 2022, he posted a photo of his mug shot to Instagram, saying in the caption that he was “very thankful” to this day that “God had another plan” for him.

But Meeks didn’t just start out in the modeling world. He has also had some (smaller) successes as an actor. In 2018, he was first seen in the music video “Wi-Fi” by Russian singer Olga Buzova.

Meeks also landed a role in the feature film “Trigger” before appearing in “Secret Society” in 2021. He is currently promoting his latest movie “Unfair Exchange”.

Meeks regularly shares his life with his 1.5 million fans on Instagram. His child, who he has with his ex-wife Melissa Meeks, is never seen. The model also has a second child with billionaire daughter Chloe Green. Since the two split in 2019, no woman has been seen next to the “hot prisoner with the teardrop tattoo”.